Japan's commercial whaling bid rejected

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The International Whaling Commission has rejected a bid by Japan
to push through a document aimed at eventually resuming commercial
whaling, with anti-whaling nations labelling it "an insult".

The measure, which would have required a three quarters
majority, was voted down by 29 votes to 23, failing even to secure
a simple majority of the 66-member bloc.

The commission has for more than a decade been working to agree
on a system to manage whaling should a 19-year moratorium on the
industry ever be lifted.

But while Japan said it considered its text a reasonable
compromise, anti-whaling nations and environmentalists said the
proposal fell well short of something they would ever approve.

"It's the sort of fisheries plan that most nations who take
sustainable management seriously wouldn't even apply to sardines or
cod," Australian Environment Minister Ian Campbell said.

"What is offered up here is an insult," said New Zealand's
Conservation Minister Chris Carter.

"It represents a return to the dirty deals of the past. This is
completely unacceptable."

Adopting the text, he said "would be the most retrograde step
imaginable".

Environmentalists said the document failed to address any of its
major objections, such as the suffering of whales under different
killing techniques and how commercial catches will be independently
regulated.

Japan, which already kills some 650 whales a year under a
research program, has been pushing for a resumption of full-scale
commercial catches, saying that depleted whale stocks have
sufficiently recovered since the 1986 moratorium came into
force.